# Why we have Trump **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [June 27, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197 "2025-06-27T13:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/81 "2025-07-09T11:25:11Z")
Again, it’s complacency and tolerance of racists as he suggests in that post. We have Trump because older whites were either racists, hostile to inclusive democracy, or they didn’t stand up to the racists in their lives. I suspect that this is how fascism came to most nations, the bourgeoisie don’t want to make a scene at Christmas dinner. This complacency is also why white boomers brought up Kent State anytime you pointed out that Trump is a fascist. To them four white middle class college kids is the worst thing imaginable. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/82 "2025-07-09T13:48:21Z")
Challenge: Follow the OP’s prompt Difficulty: Impossible It has been ~~1~~ 0 posts since someone pontificated about why we have Trump in earnest. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/83 "2025-07-09T14:19:23Z")
I find the OT responses much more interesting than the criticisms they engender. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/84 "2025-07-09T15:06:23Z")
Hey, some of us tried. … Also, because according to the comments section the MCU, DCU, Star Trek and Wars franchises were “going woke” so people said “oh yeah you want RW technocorporate supervillains? We’ll GIVE you RW technocorporate supervillains”. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/85 "2025-07-09T15:33:34Z")
What I wouldn’t do for a villain with the competency of Lex Luthor. ---
**Author:** ![Frilly\_Heck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90ced4/32.png) [@Frilly\_Heck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frilly_Heck)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/86 "2025-07-09T18:42:56Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Challenge: Follow the OP’s prompt > > Difficulty: Impossible > > It has been ~~1~~ 0 posts since someone pontificated about why we have Trump in earnest. People’s inability to understand the difference between situations that call for earnestness vs. snark is why we have Trump. (only about half joking) ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/87 "2025-07-09T18:48:50Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I find the OT responses much more interesting than the criticisms they engender. I might also if they didn’t also exist in eleventy bajillion other threads. Which is the point of the thread And quite probably why we have Trump ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/88 "2025-07-09T18:49:46Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I find the OT responses much more interesting than the criticisms they engender. And _wouldn’t that be a great idea for a different thread?!_ ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/89 "2025-07-09T18:54:43Z")
Does “OT” mean “on-topic” or “off-topic”? ---
**Author:** ![TheBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@TheBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBryan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/90 "2025-07-09T19:35:32Z")
> [@Frilly\_Heck](#): > > People’s inability to understand the difference between situations that call for earnestness vs. snark is why we have Trump. I’m not sure if this was intended to be posted in earnest or if it was intended to be snarky. > [@Miller](#): > > Does “OT” mean “on-topic” or “off-topic”? I think it means “overtime”. Or “offroad tricycle”. I think “ominous tarantula” is out of context for this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Frilly\_Heck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/90ced4/32.png) [@Frilly\_Heck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frilly_Heck)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/91 "2025-07-09T19:52:41Z")
> [@TheBryan](#): > > I’m not sure if this was intended to be posted in earnest or if it was intended to be snarky. It’s a quantum superposition of multiple snark states. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/92 "2025-07-09T21:06:46Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > I might also if they didn’t also exist in eleventy bajillion other threads. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > And _wouldn’t that be a great idea for a different thread?!_ Maybe a different forum that offers a tighter leash … ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/93 "2025-07-10T00:12:08Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > What I wouldn’t do for a villain with the competency of Lex Luthor Can’t help think Lexcorp would at least be selling proper self-driving cars by now. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/94 "2025-07-10T00:28:16Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Again, it’s complacency and tolerance of racists as he suggests in that post. We have Trump because older whites were either racists, hostile to inclusive democracy, or they didn’t stand up to the racists in their lives. I suspect that this is how fascism came to most nations, the bourgeoisie don’t want to make a scene at Christmas dinner. Naomi Shulman: > “Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than ‘politics’. They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resisters.” We’ve spent generations teaching people that resistance to fascism is _impolite._ That virtuous people turn their heads and ignore the persecution, and that only bad people point out what’s happening, complain about it, or _worst_ of all raise a hand in defense. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/95 "2025-07-10T00:34:11Z")
Exactly, almost all the reasons put forward here are some version of that. Half of Americans are fascists, of the remainder half of them “don’t follow politics.” ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/96 "2025-07-10T01:08:54Z")
Surely you realize the fewer the relevant responses in the ‘fuck homeopaths’ thread the more effective the discussion will be? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/97 "2025-07-10T01:15:43Z")
Since you saw fit to quote me in your OP I feel that I have read it completely. It was a shitty, nasty little post that intentional misrepresented my point. Many of the other posters have made: that Americans were largely complacent and slow to stop America’s descent into fascism. You said in the OP: > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > The only constant, as far as I can tell, is that somebody didn’t do the thing that the speaker wanted them to do. And that’s why we have Trump. It was a stupid OP and our responses were better than your initial post. ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/98 "2025-07-12T16:19:26Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > What I wouldn’t do for a villain with the competency of Lex Luthor. Trump is like if Solomon Grundy took brain damage in a fall and woke up thinking he was Lex Luthor. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/99 "2025-07-12T22:29:41Z")
I think you incorrect re the effect of domestic stay at home orders (we never had actual “lockdowns” and using that terminology only serves to further that narrative) on inflation was minimal. Inflation was a world-wide event principally caused by supply-chain disruptions. Sure, pent-up demand was a factor, but not the determining one. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197/100 "2025-07-12T23:28:53Z")
That’s why I mentioned earlier in my post the argument was a specious argument, which is what the OP was looking for. I had made the same mistake earlier in the thread. To clarify, I don’t seriously believe that the argument you quoted actually contributed to Trump’s victory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-we-have-trump/1020197.md?page=6)